12 ILC at COLUMBIA: Meet and Greet: Columbia and Brown I Potluck 2012

What a pleasant evening it was to officially meet the rest of the Columbia 2012 cohort and the Brown I 2012 cohort! This potluck was organized a couple of weeks ago by our Columbia chaperone (Ms. L) and two of the Brown chaperones (Mr. Crosby and Ms. Kaplan). Essentially, it was a relaxed, informative evening about both of the schools and a way to just sit back, eat, and talk about school and ILC.

Delicious food! And this was before everyone came, as well

Nick Shebek and Kelly Xi are part of the Brown I group; we sat close to one another. They were part of the ILC last year (coincidentally, in the same cohort!). Talking about stories from last year and all our ILC adventures was really fun. The ILC newbies carefully asked us questions about the dinner, attire, and our time back east. I was happy to be answering questions, being a leader, and providing advice. Not to mention that we were also eating delicious, delicious food. Meeting new ILCers is exciting for me, but I also really like to meet new people in a nice social setting. Even though every single member of the ILC wasn't there, I think it was good for everyone to loosen up and talk about how excited they are for summer to come.

Emily Hayashi-Groves - member of the Brown I cohort and will be taking the course Macroeconomics


(Left) Ying-An Wang (Brown I - DNA-Biotechnology) and (Right) Moravid (Columbia, Presidential Powers)

Delicious food ranging from macaroni to vegetable lasagna to potstickers


Even more food, this time ranging from lumpia to chow mein to noodle dishes

Talking with Nick Shebek (Brown I - Macroeconomics)

After about an hour of chatter, Ms. Kaplan and Ms. L began to talk to the group as a whole (each student had to bring a family member with them). Both chaperones went over components such as the East Coast dinners, having to do laundry, luggage, traveling back and forth (when Ms. L began to talk about the NYC subway system, I'll admit I got nervous!), and the college tours. I'm very excited to report that the Columbia cohort will be touring:

University of Pennsylvania (located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
Sarah Lawrence College (located in the Bronx, New York)
Yale University (located in New Haven, Connecticut)
Vassar College (located in Poughkeepsie, New York)
New York University (located right in New York City!)

After this basic information was laid out, the two groups split apart into separate rooms to talk specifically about each school and the programs we will be participating in. Ms. L got us really excited about NYC by telling us that we'll be going on a Bay Cruise (I love boats!!!), possibly seeing a Broadway show (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), and going to Coney Island for the Fourth of July. Ms. L is so enthusiastic about New York - this will be her fourth year chaperoning for the Columbia trip, so I already know that she has lots of knowledge about the city.

Ms. L is a very straightforward person, and I'm very glad that she told us of her rules and how much she will be enforcing them. I think it's great that we'll have meetings every day and that she'll really be checking on where we'll be going even when we're at Columbia. She's so knowledgeable about the city that she's definitely the first person that I would want making sure that I know where I'm going and if I'm okay!

I also found out that student's Columbia ID cards either gets them a discount when they go to places such as museums and that the university will have a lot of activities for us when we arrive. Ms. L told us about suite-mates and our classes (the course I will be taking, Constitutional Law, will have a lot of debates and be research based). I could not be more excited for the summer!